Why does the alpinejs ESM module require more than just an import?

[danielniccoli]

I can add the htmx module to my website by adding it to vite's main.js with just

import "htmx.org"

For alpinejs, a simple import "alpinejs" is not enough, and I must add additional code:

import Alpine from "alpinejs"
window.Alpine = Alpine
Alpine.start()

Was this a deliberate design choice? Or was this necessary, because there is something preventing it from having it a simple import "alpinejs", as it does with htmx?

[SimoTod]

window.Alpine = Alpine is not necessary unless you use Alpine outside of the file/script where you call import.

The cdn autostart,s the module version doesn't so people can do

import Alpine from "alpinejs"

... your code, define Alpine.data, stores, custom magic/directives, etx

Alpine.start()

without exposing Alpine on the global object.

It's a design choice.

[ekwoka]

Because then you can't do any setup.

I'd actually argue that HTMX is not good, because of how it self initializes always. It requires more working around how it works than Alpine does. Their extensions are even worse...

HTMX is very much a cool concept, but I think it's engineering is pretty awful. (I say this as a contributor)